BYPASS campaigners in Wyre Piddle have been celebrating a £5.6 million boost to their quality of life.

About 80 people packed into the Anchor pub for a drink with MP Peter Luff who helped in the fight for funding.

Transport Minister Lord Whitty approved the Wyre Piddle bypass funding as part of Worcestershire's Local Transport Plan last Thursday after 32 years of tireless campaigning by residents and politicians.

He said: "I am delighted to approve this scheme for funding with the five-year transport plan settlement. The bypass of Wyre Piddle and Upper Moor will form part of the Strategic Highway Network. The new junction at George Lane will remove heavy lorries travelling to and from the landfill site through the village."

Lord Whitty was hoping to visit the village himself last Thursday to hand over documents giving details about the funding to officials in Wyre Piddle, but was unable to make it because of flooding at Didcot.

Instead, Anne Frost, Director of Transport at the Government Office for the West Midlands, met deputy county council leader Liz Tucker in the village.

Coun Tucker said: "This is the best millennium celebration of all for Wyre Piddle. The village has been working at it since 1968 and there have been so many changes of people involved. I personally have worked for 20 years on it. If we hadn't got the money this time that would have been it for another 10 years."

The village has been calling for a bypass for years. It is split in half by heavy traffic, including lorries taking rubbish to Hill and Moor Landfill.

Parish council chairman Gary Robinson said: "Everyone is looking forward to the day when we can become a village again. We are going to have a street party the Saturday after the bypass opens.

"I think we were successful this time partly because of our perseverance and also the strength of the case put forward by the county council and Peter Luff.

"We were also helped by having Pershore Town Council on side and their representatives also came to London in October with us. By showing how the road would help Pershore too by taking traffic away from them, it strengthened our case."

Pershore's mayor, Councillor John Grantham said he hoped the bypass would lead to a 25% reduction in the number of HGVs using High Street and Bridge Street in Pershore.

"I think it's great and Pershore people are almost as delighted as those in Wyre Piddle." he said.

The county is currently going out to tender with work expected to start next September, taking about a year. The road will start from a roundabout at the western end of the village, run north of the railway line, have a second roundabout at its junction with George Lane and rejoin the Evesham road past Upper Moor.

Mr Luff added: "It is time to celebrate the relief this road will bring to Wyre Piddle, Upper Moor and to Pershore. To celebrate the lives that will be saved as accidents are avoided, to celebrate the re-birth of a village that has been scarred and divided by a busy and dangerous road for too long and to celebrate the patience and determination of the villagers who are the real heroes of this saga."